Navigating Relationships When Working *With* Your Life Partner

How would you handle working with your life partner as your business partner?

In this week’s episode, Sydney and Audrina dive into the ins and outs of managing relationships and navigating complex situations around working alongside family and friends—including juggling kids while running a business. They offer handy tips and tricks from everything they’ve figured out along the way, so you can make your personal and working life run so much smoother. (Hint: it’s all about communication.)

There are lots of simple tools you can use for good communication, like taking time to pause when things start getting stressful. Learning to pick your battles, deciding which hills to die on (and which ones aren’t a big deal), and taking the time to explain your vision and your reasons—instead of brushing your thoughts and feelings aside—makes such a difference. Another great tool is letting each other know what ‘number’ (energy level) you’re at so you can help each other out. It can be hard to bounce between work and life stuff, so literally call it out and label where you’re at: ‘Business partner hat is going on right now.’

Having a successful working relationship with your partner comes from the foundational relationship-building effort outside of work. You need to be able to truly listen to your partner and respect each other’s boundaries, otherwise unaddressed issues can bleed into work *and* regular life. It’s really important to have space for regular conversations and to discuss difficult things upfront because they won’t get better unless you change your approach.

In This Conversation:

• Audrina and Sydney talk about why you need to have your own roles (and even separate departments!) when working with your partner. Make sure you understand each other’s skills and strengths so you can decide what you’ll each focus on to avoid stepping on each other’s toes…
• Sydney reflects on the impact of making decisions together, no matter how small they seem. (This may or may not have come from nearly getting divorced over a decision about curtains…)
• Audrina and Sydney discuss managing their work and personal lives, including how they chat about work outside of work. Sydney’s parents decided work was an off-limits topic for date night, but Sydney and Audrina are the opposite. (It’s all about what’s best for you!)
• Audrina touches on managing the balance between knowing when to work things out yourself and when to get your partner’s input. It’s important to be self-aware—start with yourself, then go from there.

For more unfiltered conversations about entrepreneurship, family life, and managing the daily demands of “doing it all”, click the Follow button so you don’t miss an episode! 

If anything we talked about resonated with you, we’d love to hear about it! Always feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or future topics you want to hear.

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearingbyitpod/ 

LinkedIn:
Audrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrinablackburn/
Sydney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneymsherman/